MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USE AIDS PAIN, CAUSES LEGAL HEADACHE

EMPORIA - Vickie Moss fights off the terrible pain by smoking marijuana.
While it helps her medically, the treatment for chronic pain has given her a
legal headache.

That's because what she's doing is against the law.

Twice she has ended up in court because of the conflict between the only
treatment she has found that doesn't cause her greater medical problems and
the law that says doctors can't prescribe marijuana use except in cases of
cancer of glaucoma.

Moss suffers from fibromyalgia. The analgesics and other pills prescribed to
counter the musculoskeletal pain dating back to a 1990 car accident eat away
at the lining of her stomach. She has had a number of surgeries to stretch
her esophagus over her damaged stomach, including a radical new operation in
November.

After reading about patients whose chronic pain has been relieved by
marijuana, she tried some and found that it helped.

Someone -- she doesn't know who -- told city police in 1994 that she was not
just using the marijuana but was selling it. Moss was arrested and charged
with a felony -- possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

"I believe Mrs. Moss' attempt to utilize Cannabis has been strictly for
medicinal purposes and under her personal circumstances would certainly seem
a reasonable medical approach (if legal) for her chronic pain and associated
anxiety," wrote a Richmond doctor to her lawyer in 1995.

When her case got to circuit court, Judge Park Lemmond listened to her
explanation, convicted her on a misdemeanor possession charge and sent her
away with a suspended sentence.

Moss, says the now-retired judge said from the bench that she could continue
to use the pot for her medical treatment, even though state and federal laws
prohibit it. There is nothing in the court record to substantiate that
claim. Moss is sure a transcript of her trial would show he did say it, but
says she can't afford the $300 she was told it would cost to obtain one.

Moss had no further dealings with the local police until she was pulled over
for speeding on Lowground Road last November. The officer who gave her the
ticket smelled marijuana and asked if he could search her car.

Moss told him about her medical use of the plant and showed him a minute
amount in a container. He ticketed her on a misdemeanor marijuana charge
and, she said, suggested she just pay the ticket and be done with it.
Because she would lose her driver's license with a marijuana conviction on
her record, Moss said, she decided to fight.

When her case got to Judge John Baker in district court, she said, she
pleaded not guilty, against the advice of her lawyer. Baker continued the
case, she said, to give her time to seek a physician's approval of her
treatment.

She went to nine doctors, Moss said, and none would write her a prescription
because of state and federal laws preventing the prescription of or
dispensing of marijuana for medical use.

When she returned to court, Moss received a 90-day suspended sentence, but
was ordered to serve 40 hours of community service, attend drug counseling
sessions and pay a fine and court costs.

She is appealing the conviction and has an April 22 date back in circuit
court.